Fort Smith School Leaders Tour Sites For Future Projects

Fort Smith School Leaders Tour Sites For Future Projects

CHAD HUNTER TIMES RECORD Fort Smith School Board president Jeannie Cole takes in a view of the Arkansas River on Friday, Jan. 24, 2014, near a site considered for a future events center and fine arts building.

“I think both sites have really good attributes,” school board member Russell Owen said. “I like the central location of the Phoenix site. I like the idea of the riverfront site for what it could do for the community.”

The riverfront site is located about a half mile north of North B Street on the west side of Riverfront Drive. A majority of the land is owned by the Westphal family, according to Fort Smith-based Tim Risley & Associates, which has been tapped to design the centers. Of a price tag for the property, Risley said, “They’re hopefully not asking anything.”

“That’s the appeal,” he added.

A key component to the riverfront site, Risley said, is the city’s plan to extend Kelley Highway.

“That would be so critical to this site,” he said. “We have to have it.”

Although next to the Arkansas River, the site is 4 feet above the 100-year flood plain, Superintendent Benny Gooden said.

“I like this site,” school board member Yvonne Keaton-Martin said. “Everything seems to go to the south side and east side. We need something to bring people to the north side also. This is a part of Fort Smith.”

The site along Phoenix Avenue near the airport costs between $3.8 million and $7.6 million “depending on what you buy,” Risley said.

“If you buy all of it, you’re buying the frontage on Phoenix, which is so valuable,” he said. “If the school pulled back in and left that frontage where that could be stores and offices, the price drops substantially.”

Cole was receptive to that idea.

“If it would be shops and restaurants that would enhance the events that were going on, I could see that being a very good plus for us,” she said.

The school board hopes to make a decision within “a couple of months,” Cole said.

An additional millage would be needed to fund all the proposed projects. The school district millage rate has held steady at 36.6 since 1987.

A timeline for the high school shows a tax proposal in voters’ hands in September 2015. If approved, construction could begin in summer 2016, with completion by fall 2018.

Fort Smith currently has 19 elementary schools, four junior high schools, two high schools, an adult education center and an alternative learning center.

Enrollment has grown by more than 1,450 students in the last 10 years. This school year’s enrollment is about 14,300. Enrollment could breach 17,000 by the year 2023, according to estimates prepared by the district.